Groups Sue Government Agencies for Yellowstone Bison ESA Protections

For immediate release Sept. 27, 2016

Contacts:Mike Harris, Director, Wildlife Law Program, Friends of Animals; 720.949.7791; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Daniel Brister, Executive Director, Buffalo Field Campaign; 406.726.5555; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Josh Osher, Montana Director, Western Watersheds Project; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), Friends of Animals (FoA) and the Western Watersheds Project have filed a lawsuit against the US Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) for failing to provide Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the distinct population segment of bison in Yellowstone National Park in response to two citizen petitions.

"What an insult to the American public that the wild bison, who was named our first national mammal in May, continues to be slaughtered because of pressure from the meat industry and ranchers grazing their doomed cattle," said Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals. "These herds are obviously in a place where they should already be protected."

The 4,500 bison in Yellowstone National Park are the only continuously wild, genetically intact bison herds in America. But hundreds are slaughtered every year when snow and ice cover the bison's food and hunger pushes them to lower elevations across the park boundary in Montana. When they cross this arbitrary line, the buffalo enter a zone of violent conflict.

"Protection under the Endangered Species Act is needed to counter these management inadequacies and to get state and federal agencies to address the threats these bison face," added Michael Connor, California director of Western Watersheds Project and author of the listing petition filed by the groups. "Instead of allowing these bison to behave like bison and move with the seasons, government agencies are practicing indiscriminate killing that is reducing their genetic diversity."

The lawsuit states that in issuing a negative 90-day determination on the petitions to list the bison as threatened or endangered, USFWS failed to rely upon the best available science, applied an incorrect legal standard to the petition and ignored the plain language of the ESA, which requires that any species threatened by one or more of five factors shall be designated as endangered or threatened.

Michael Harris, director of Friends of Animals' Wildlife Law Program, points out that USFWS failed to consider that the curtailment of habitat has already resulted in placing the Yellowstone bison at risk of extinction. USFWS deems the population status to be stable, however under the ESA, the agency is required to not only look at the current numbers of bison, but how much of the bisons range has already been destroyed. Bison historically occupied approximately 20,000 square kilometres and presently only 3,175 square kiometres within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park serve as principal bison habitat.

"There were millions and millions of acres that were available to the bison that are no longer available to them because of livestock ranching. Their range has been curtailed by 90 percent, and that alone should be enough to warrant a listing," Harris said.

"America's national mammal, the wild bison, is threatened with extinction because of the actions of the agencies entrusted with protecting them," added Dan Brister, executive director of Buffalo Field Campaign. "The Department of Interior should base its decisions on the best available science, not political pressure from the livestock industry."

West Yellowstone, Montana-based Buffalo Field Campaign is a non-profit public interest organization founded in 1997 to protect the natural habitat of wild migratory buffalo and native wildlife, stop the slaughter of Americas last wild buffalo and advocate for their lasting protection, and work with people of all nations to honor the sacredness of wild bison. www.buffalofieldcampaign.org a regional conservation organization with offices in Montana.

Western Watersheds Project is a nonprofit environmental conservation group founded in 1993 and has field offices in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, California, and Oregon. WWP works to influence and improve public lands management throughout the West with a primary focus on the negative impacts of livestock grazing on 250 million acres of western public lands. www.westernwatersheds.org

Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals, an international animal protection organization founded in 1957, advocates for the rights of animals, free-living and domestic around the world. www.friendsofanimals.org.

BFC's goal is to stop the slaughter and harassment of Yellowstone's wild buffalo herds, protect the natural habitat of wild free-roaming buffalo and native wildlife, and to work with people of all Nations to honor the sacredness of wild buffalo.